Universally comprehensible, arrogantly local

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From the perspective of the international scholarly community under North Atlantic domination, South Africa may seem like a peripheral site for knowledge production. However, recent calls to provincialize Europe and deconstruct Eurocentrism have begun to challenge this perception, though success in altering global divides in social scientific knowledge remains limited. This study adopts a different approach to counter North Atlantic hegemony by exploring counter-hegemonic currents in international sociology. It emphasizes collective social scientific practice—producing data, knowledge, and texts, fostering new scholars, and engaging with non-academic actors—to create integrated scientific communities. By focusing on local discussions and relevant research, it diminishes the belief in Northern hegemony. The historical development of South African labour studies exemplifies this. The analysis covers research and teaching activities, networks with external actors, and international cooperation across three major Labour Studies centers: Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town. It utilizes diverse materials, including annual reports, teaching content, and the "South African Labour Bulletin," alongside qualitative assessments of seminal texts. In-depth interviews with Labour Studies representatives help reconstruct the oral history of this scholarly community, crucial for understanding debates suppressed during Apartheid. Ultimately, So